Tick-Tock!!!
You trip is coming right up!
I'm glad to hear that your recovery is progressing so well! Hopefully you will feel good in the parks and during the 5K.
Can't believe we leave tomorrow. I feel totally unprepared for this trip!
That is exciting about the Rivers of Light show. Can't wait to see your pictures!
Excited to see it! It's been a while in the making...
Congrats on getting your August dining reservations. They sound awesome for the kids and for the group!
I hope so! It may be a bit too many ADRS especially for the kids but I thought to make them now because they will probably not be available later!
Good question on the Fast Passes-
I have never used the rider swap, so I'm not exactly sure how that works.
I would get book some FP for thrill rides, but for some of the kiddie rides that can have a long wait, like Winnie the Pooh and Peter Pan, having FP so you don't have to wait in line would be good. I'm not sure that you need FP for Dumbo now, with two rides and with the fun play area. Should you get FP for Barnstormer? I don't know! I have never been.
Thanks! I'm going to learn all I can about Rider Swap. Sounds like a great tool to use if you are willing to go through with the hassle because then some adults can go without needing an FP+
My preference for a trip report would be to have the report include dining. If you want to do a separate dining report you could always post those pieces in another report as you go.
That's a good idea, and it's easier for me to just write one big one.
Wow! That booking for August sounds heinous. I just finished our July/Aug ADRs on Monday morning. I had to book the before and after (8/12-13) cruise parts separately. Sounds like a lot of good options. You will have a great time. I keep thinking I would love for family to join us on one of our WDW trips or a
DCL cruise, but no one wants to spend the money

Glad you are getting to see ROL. Tiffins is great. We will be heading back for our 3rd time in July. If you have time, get a drink or app at Nomad Lounge next door. I bet the view of Pandora at night will be very cool.
Booking for a large group can be tricky. In some cases I could book for 11 people and had my friend book for her family of 4 at the same time. Hopefully we can sit close together! The CRT was the biggest pain to book too. Plus we have to pay upfront. Tell me about it. I've been trying to convince my friends/family to come with us for years. Aside from Chunkysis no one really thought it was an investment, but now that our other sisters have kids I think they are beginning to realize they cannot escape from the call of Disney, buahahaha.
I am not even sure I know where Tiffins is. It was open on our last trip but we didn't see it. Then again we rarely explore parts of AK (I haven't been to Dinoland in years). And I don't even know where Rivers of Light is held, LOL. Hopefully it's a good show to go through all this trouble!
Not to usurp the thread, but if you can't get into French Laundry, try La Toque. We ate there several years ago now, when it was in Rutherford, but absolutely loved it. The chef came out to meet everyone, in his Converse no less. It was a very comfortable and delicious meal.
Mmm La Toque sounds like a good restaurant. I've also liked Girl and the Fig, Bottega, and Bouchon. There's lots of really nice restaurants in Yountville. Actually all over Napa/Sonoma. It's hard to choose!
I love your birthday present to yourself! It's perfectly fitting for your "princess" trip!
Thanks! I thought so too, hehe.
I'm trying really hard to fit ROL in somewhere! We had only planned on a half day at AK on the morning they have EMH, but I've seen videos of it and it looks like something I'd really like. Bummer they are only doing it on certain nights though
Yeah it sucks it's not every night otherwise the night you get there, before our drinks would be perfect for us as we have no plans that evening.
We are going to be at Epcot the night of the 25, have a dinner ADR at Teppan Edo, if you make it over we should get an early birthday Grey Goose slushy!
Sounds good! I'll have to see if we can even make it to Epcot after our 7 hour SW walking tour, the day after the 5k with my lame ankle.. I guess I thought this was a good idea at some point...oh wait that was before I hurt my ankle! LOL.
I can't imagine trying to organize a trip for 15 people, good for you! That's amazing
If I didn't do anything, one one would have and we'd never be going to Disney, LOL. So I had to make this happen for my niece's 5th birthday!
I think I also prefer the dining report within the trip report. Perhaps you could just alternate chapters, dining/trip
That's a good idea. Shorter posts, with different topics. It'll be easy to pulll out the dining posts as well if I want to create a separate dining report.
Sorry I'm no help about the kid swap thing, we didn't even start going to Disney until Kiya was 5 and by that time she was up to riding pretty much everything we wanted.
LOL I'm sure we will be ok. Just have to read up on it and see a few real live examples.
Thank you for the good advice - I will make a note of that - I am flying blind and starting from scratch with wine country, so just starting my notes!
You're going to have an amazing time!
Fantastic plans all around, Su-Lynn! Looking forward to your report - and have a great birthday trip with lots of wonderful "firsts"!
Thank you!!
Yay that you fit in ROL too! We grabbed a Tusker House dinner one day so we could see it too. And I'm glad you didn't have too much trouble making Adrs for such a big party. I bet your niece meeting Cinderella is going to be adorable!
Hopefully it's worth the wait for the show!
I think I was lucky as I made ADRs on the first day. If I had waited any longer, I wouldn't have been able to get CRT!
Ah, you are so close to your trip! While I'll be finishing up my parent-teacher conferences, you'll be at Disney!
As far as one big TR or separate ones, I'd probably go one big one just bc it can get confusing with two...but honestly, it's not that big of a deal so I'm good either way.
Gotcha! I will start writing and see how I feel about the two separate posts or one big posts.
Plans look great! Can't wait to read all about it afterwards!
Thanks! I hope it's a good trip...It's not starting out so good, as DH is sick as a dog. He's been heavily medicated since yesterday. I'm hoping by the race he'll be ok enough to run.
Ok, so basically, on the Rider Swap, 3 people can ride with it. How many "too short" kids will you have? Because you can probably get more than 1 Rider Swap with that many people in your party if you have more than 1 too short kid. You'll just have to be 2 or 3 "parties" if that makes sense.
I'll explain what I know of it with a smaller family though. Let's say you had 2 adults and 3 kids (2 tall enough, 1 not). Adult1 and Kid1 and Kid2 book 7DMT. Adult2 and Kid3 book Pooh. All go up to 7DMT to show Kid3 is too short. Group1 will usually get a lanyard and then they will get the RS pass somewhere further along the queue. While they are riding, Group2 rides Pooh. Afterward, Adult2 can now ride 7DMT on the pass, and the 2 tall enough kids can ride again bc 3 people can ride on the pass. Or even adult1 can ride again, if say, adult2 doesn't like coasters. And the pass is usually good until the end of the month so it doesn't even have to be used right away.
However, another strategy is what we will do at Epcot. I'll book Test Track for me, Soarin for DH and AJ. Then we will get Rider Swap pass for each of these so the other can ride and AJ too if he wants. So Will kind of gets screwed here, but maybe we'll get him an ice cream or something while he's waiting.

Or take him on a ride with little wait.
It can be a little confusing but I've gotten lots of help with understanding it from
@hiroMYhero . I'm sure she can answer anymore questions you have if you want to make a separate post about it.
Thank you so much! I'll definitely be reading up on this!
@hiroMYhero is there a master rider swap thread somewhere or should I start a new thread on the Attractions forum?